Construction is on its way for a building adjacent to the Main Injector at MI-30. The new building, designated MI-31, will be a 4,000-square-foot, metal-sided structure with a height of 35 feet. The project began in March 2003 and is slated for completion in March 2004, at an expected cost of $3.8 million. The building will house the electron cooling equipment for the Recycler's antiproton beam. According to Jeff Sims, FESS, the construction is on schedule and on budget. Electron cooling, currently under development at Fermilab's Wideband Lab, will reduce the size of the antiproton beam and increase the Tevatron luminosity.

Technical Division Picnic

Giorgio Apollinari and other TD employees tossing water balloons

"Teamwork" was the theme of this year's TD picnic, and more than 200 employees gathered in front of the Kuhn barn to enjoy a beautiful summer day over hot dogs, burgers, and cold salads. Division Head Bob Kephart addressed the group thanking them for a safe and productive year, highlighting major projects in the last year. "I am proud of having accomplished all this working safely. Keep up the good work," he said.

The organizing committee had prepared a number of games, including a water balloon tossing contest. In keeping with the picnic's theme, a team of TD employees sneaked up on Kephart and pelted him with some extra balloons. Kephart laughed off the friendly assault, setting the tone for a fun time with games, raffles, handouts and plenty of wet shirts.

Teachers tune their skills
Thirteen teachers from the Chicago region spent this week at Fermilab to
learn more about plant identification and other activities that will engage
their students, grades 6-8, as they study the prairie this fall. Teachers
must complete this workshop, called Particles and Prairies, before they can
bring students on a field trip to the Fermilab prairie.

From an announcement by the British PPARC:World's largest robotic telescope ready for action!

The Liverpool Telescope, the world's largest fully robotic telescope, has snapped its first images of the heavens this week. The 2 meter optical telescope is located on La Palma in the Canary Islands. "This enables us to study such phenomena as supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursts - the biggest explosions in space," said Professor David Carter of the Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) of Liverpool John Moores University.
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Rod Walton, ecologist at Fermilab, on our July 25 "Mosquito Magnets" story:
Ecologists are fond of the saying, "You can't do just one thing," and it's true. We all know about unintended consequences, even in our everyday lives. So it is with the "mosquito magnets." These contraptions may work (although one should remain skeptical) but there is a cost. For one thing, the machines have a pretty hefty price tag -- anywhere from $100 to $1500.

More importantly, the sole aim of this gadget is to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Far from being environmentally friendly, as was stated in last week's piece, burning a tank of propane results in about twenty pounds of CO2 added to the atmosphere. That's the equivalent of burning roughly a gallon of gas in your automobile. CO2 is the most serious of the so-called greenhouse gasses, staying in the air for up to 1000 years.

Updated Schedules
Jeff Appel, head of the Program Planning Office, has posted the new schedules for the accelerators and experiments.

Fermilab Lecture Series presents:Windows on the Universe:
New Questions about Matter, Space and Time
Friday, Aug. 15, at 8 p.m., Ramsey Auditorium. Cost: $5.
Fermilab Director Mike Witherell will take a look at questions about extra dimensions, dark matter and quantum gravity, and how physicists might begin to answer them in the next decade. For tickets call 630-840-ARTS workdays between 9 am and 4 pm.

Illinois Renewable Energy Fair,
Aug. 9-10
The Ogle County Fairgrounds will host 60 workshops on renewable energy topics. Over 50 businesses, agencies, and organizations will have displays. Children activities include making solar cookers. Cost: $5 for adults. More info

Golf Outing on Aug. 21
The Fermilab Golf League presents an outing at the Tamarack Golf Club in Naperville on
Aug. 21. Shot gun start at 1:30 pm. Cost is $50, all included. Please contact arnold@fnal.gov or reeves@fnal.gov for details.

Dance Performance on Aug. 10
Dancers of Fermilab's Silk and Thistle group will join the Prairie's Edge Scottish Country Dancers and perform at the Bristol Renaissance Fair on Sunday.

Fermilab Tuesday Fox Valley Golf League
The league has begun it's end-of-the-season tournament. The following teams survived the quarterfinals and will face each other in the next round on 8/12: Team 4 (Kujawa, Kee, Plumer, Hively) vs. Team 2 (McCrory, Bohn, Seifert, Voirin), and Team 5 (Sullivan, Gattuso, Chamberlain, Moehs) vs. Team 8 (Yousif, Scarpine, Chase, Fellenz).